Girl Sensible - Around The World

We drove through amazing mountain scenery, past more beautiful lakes, fields of lupins and ended up in beautiful Wanaka

We stayed in a little house in a stunning setting, without doubt the nicest place I have stayed so far. The weather was good, not warm enough for swimming but a glass of wine in the hot tub was definitely the order of the day.
From Wanaka we took a trip out to Mount Aspiring National Park, this was a really nice day, chilling out.

Next we were off for our jetboating trip at shotover canyon, this was pretty good fun. The water was constantly hitting you in the face and was freezing, I felt like I had had a facelift and my face was permanent stuck in some clown laughing pose!

We moved onto Te Anau, our base to see Fiordlands. The weather forecast was looking a bit dodgy so we booked for 4 nights in a little cottage overlooking the lake, so we could take a trip to Doubtful sound in the good weather.
We took the drive to Milford Sound on one of the days, I can see how nice it could be on a sunny day but it wasn't meant to be

On another bad weather day we went for a scenic drive, over the course of the holiday I had come to believe the statistic that there are 10 sheep per head of population and I wonder if this is more than double that in South Island! we have driven through so many tiny little towns with all the shops closed and no one around, its like something out of a movie!

Finally our day arrived to go to Doubtful Sound. The weather was phenominal, blue skies, sunshine and the lake was as calm as a milpond. To get to the sound we had to take a trip accross lake Manapouri (almost and hour) to the Manapouri hydro electric power station. After a brief tour at the power station we took a bus over the mountain pass to reach the top of the sound. From here our boat trip began. It was a calm day and we went further than many trips out to sea. Aparently if you see more than 2 minutes of sun on Doubtful Sound you have had a good day.

Our first look at the south island was arriving on the ferry into Picton through the Malborough sounds. What a start to the sightseeing :-)

We then drove through beautiful vineyards making a mental note to stop this way on route back to the ferry. Carried on through beautiful hills and Mountains stumbing upon Lake Rotoiti on route. Coming out of season was a good idea, there was only one other couple to share the lake with

We spent our first night in Murchison, a tiny little town on route to the West coast. We found a little motel run by a lady who has lived there all her life and rented her massive 2 bed house for the night. It was kitted out in a retro 1950's style and had amazing views all round and its own garden. Making the most of the sunshine she let me borrow her son's bike and I headed off for a ride in the countryside

We headed over towards the coast, the scenery was again very pretty, we managed to get the last room in town in the place called Greymouth, it wasn't much to write home about but I did catch a lovely sunset on the beach

Next we headed south and I went for a walk at Cape Foulwind lighthouse, as I struggle to brush my hair I think this is very well named.

Next stop a smelly sea colony where we watched all the seal pups playing in the ricky surf and here I realised how far away from home I had come!

From here on in the weather was pretty miserable, much like home, grey drizzle :-(
We arrived in Franz Josef and took the hour walk to the base of the glacier. I have to say it didn't look that impressive, kind of unreal. I really wanted a closer look so I booked myself on the Heli hike for the next day. I woke up bright and early and it was fairly clear but the cloud closed in within half and hour and my trip was cancelled :-( Instead we headed to the coast for the day and within half and hour we were out of the cloud and lying on the beach in the sun!

I rebooked my heli hike for the next day and this time it went ahead as planned. My entire group was 11 girls and the pilot certainly gave us a spin in the copter on the way up. The glacier was a much grander sight from above. After donning our crampons we set off for a bit of a wander around the ice. It was chilly up there but when the sun came out it was lovely and warm. There were a few pools of beautiful blue water and some lovely blue ice caves :-)

Check out the sunset on the plane flying here...pretty!

After clearing Bio hazard at Auckland airport I was hit with the 15 degree reduction in temperature since Cairns :-(

When my parents had arrived on their flight we all headed to their friends north of Auckland. That was a much nicer welcome to New Zealand after the smelly motel the night before, cosy bed with electric blanket :-) Thanks Anne

We then headed south in the rain to the bubbling springs of Rotoroa. Pretty much as expected..... lots of steam and the smell of rotten eggs. We carried on South and ended up basing ourselves in Lake taupo for a couple of nights. This was stunning........

We drove to the Tongariro National Park and took in the sights, the weather was gorgeous. Still snow on the mountains

I toyed with the idea of doing a skydive but on my own I knew I would loose my bottle.
We then headed down to Wellington and spent the afternoon at the viewpoint taking in the view and watching the planes coming in over the cook straight. I had heard terrible stories of how rough the water in this straight could be, but the day we got on the ferry it was sunny skys and light wind. Lucky me, no seasickness today :-)